Disagreements, separation and anxiety over disintegration the most prominent crises that afflicted Europe in 2021

"White Tsunami" Gangs, smuggling networks and tons of drugs sweeping France

At a time when the drug trade in European countries has witnessed a remarkable boom in recent years, the French authorities have recently announced their entry into an open war to combat gangs and drug smuggling networks that have managed to invade its ports and various facilities, in an alarming way.

Although the closure procedures and quarantine laws imposed by many European countries to combat the spread of the Corona pandemic in 2020, somehow managed to hinder the smuggling and sale of drugs, some gangs and professional dealers, managed to devise other solutions that fit the conditions of the closure, and some of them adopted in Mostly internet marketing. They then defrauded the distribution routes and lines, according to a report issued by the European Control Center for Drugs and Addictions.

With the advent of 2021, and with some countries easing the strict measures that had cast a shadow over many sectors, drug trafficking and smuggling resumed through various shipping routes and channels. It has witnessed remarkable growth in several European countries, especially France, where the security services recently launched screams of panic over what they described as a "white tsunami" that managed to sweep it frighteningly and are trying hard to confront it.

White tsunami hits France

Prosecutor Antoine Berthelot announced that France is facing a terrible wave of distribution of the narcotic substance cocaine, which he described as a "white tsunami" that hits all of Europe and does not exclude France.

According to Bertillo, on Wednesday, December 22, more than a ton of cocaine powder was seized from Colombia through the Norman port.

In the French city of Austin, customs officials announced earlier this month that they had confiscated at least 1.5 tons of cocaine coming from Panama, which were found packed in 39 bags hidden in a container.

These incidents are links in a long series of raids carried out by the French security services recently, to combat the distribution and smuggling of drugs. Last May, the French authorities also announced the confiscation of a ton of cocaine in the port of Le Havre.

The port of Le Havre is considered one of the most important and leading ports in France, and its true economic lung. It later turned into a major gateway for cocaine to all countries, and from there to the rest of Europe.

To counter this wave, the French Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, issued a decision earlier this year to intensify security reinforcements and monitoring units at several points where traders and smugglers are suspected.

The security services managed to dismantle many criminal networks, and dozens of smugglers were arrested in separate cities. But these efforts still fall short of preventing this tsunami, which seems to have gone much further.

In Ille-et-Vilaine, for example, the head of the gendarmerie, Colonel Sebastien Godon, announced in a media statement that more than 1,300 people had been charged with driving under the influence. This figure is considered alarming, and suggests to some degree the extent of the widespread use of the drug in France, and the prosperity of this appallingly shady trade, its exacerbation is not easy to counter.

Regarding the arrival and spread of these narcotic substances in French cities, despite the strict measures and open war launched by the Ministry of the Interior, experts and analysts pointed out that this is due to the corruption that is rampant in various institutions and agencies, which facilitated or condoned the passage of these illegal goods through the ports. Checkpoints and surveillance, until France is facing a phenomenon out of control.

Drugs sweeping Europe

What France is experiencing today is an example of what the rest of European countries are facing in the midst of the widespread and rapid spread of drug trafficking and drug smuggling networks, especially cocaine powder.

In 2018, the competent authorities seized more than 180 tons of cocaine, which arrived through ports and ships, which suggested to the competent authorities a frightening infiltration of these criminal gangs into the shipping lines in Europe.

In this context, security experts emphasized that the boom in the illegal drug trade is accompanied by an increase in the number of crime, the spread of weapons, and an increase in the number of criminal gangs and organized networks.

According to official reports, about 5,000 criminal organizations are active in Europe, more than a third of which are involved in drug trafficking. Drug trafficking also finances organized crime with sums of money amounting to 30 billion euros annually. As such, drug trafficking is considered the largest market for criminal organizations within the European Union.

Disagreements, separation and anxiety over disintegration the most prominent crises that afflicted Europe in 2021

From the vaccine war to the chronic problems of Brexit, from the migrant crisis to the rule of law struggles with Poland and Hungary, from the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine to the threat of renewed fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina Crises faced Europe in 2021, causing disagreements and fears of disintegration.

Throughout the year 2021, Europe has been successively affected by crises, with the exception of those that have shared the brunt of the world since the outbreak of the epidemic of the Corona virus since 2019, or those that it inherited from previous years such as Brexit, Brussels experienced a year marked by internal conflicts threatening the disintegration of its member states after which there will be no meeting of its member states.

In addition to all this external threat near its borders, following the increase in tension in eastern Ukraine, and the Belarusian regime loyal to Moscow pressure on Poland with the migrant card. On the other hand, the Union seemed unable to defend itself and outside the defense equations, especially after the unilateral American decision to leave Afghanistan, and the exclusion of Brussels from the "Ocos" alliance and the subsequent "slap" of submarines received by France. Meanwhile, fears of a new fighting in the Balkan countries increase with the Bosnian Serbs pushing towards secession.

Observers agree that it was the year of crises par excellence for the European Union, as it received all these blows, both externally and internally, which raises many questions about the extent of its success in achieving the political and strategic goals for which it was established, and the extent to which it was able to keep its gathering together.

The vaccine war and the endless flaws of Brexit

Europe began its year, like the rest of the world, optimistic about the scientific successes achieved by research in the vaccine against the Corona virus. The Union, arguing with its historical weight, tried to secure sufficient doses to vaccinate its people, while this will clashed with fierce global competition, in which Brussels realized the waning of its international influence. Beginning with AstraZeneca announcing malfunctions in European dose production chains, the Commission responded by waving a paper preventing European production of the vaccine from exporting to Britain, which was the first to contract with the mentioned company.

As a result of this reality, a war of words erupted between Britain on one side and the European Union on the other side. The latter was used for pressure, the paper suspending the use of the British vaccine due to doubts about its cause of blood clotting in some cases that were vaccinated with it. AstraZeneca responded to him at the time that there were only "37 cases of blood clots among the 17 million people who had received the vaccine in the twenty-seven countries of the Union plus Britain", and this number "does not even statistically indicate the probability of these clots occurring in the general population."

On the other hand, Eastern European countries rushed to supply the Russian "Sputnik V" vaccine, which was not licensed by the European Medicines Agency. On top of it is Hungary, which licensed the Russian vaccine without reference to the recommendations of the European Medicines Authority, and even the Ministry of Health stressed in a statement that the Russian vaccine is “the safest and most effective among the vaccines offered against the Corona virus.” Meanwhile, a similar decision in neighboring Slovakia led to a political crisis, toppling the prime minister there, Igor Matovic, after he made a secret deal to buy 200,000 Sputnik doses. The isolation of Czech Foreign Minister Thomas Batarchik, because of his anti - Russian vaccine, after an argument between him and Prime Minister Milos Zeman, known as inclination towards Moscow.

While Europe was still undecided on its new-old dispute with Britain, this time over downloading the Brexit agreement that the two sides signed in December 2020. The sticking points between them remained, on top of which was trade across the Northern Ireland border, which quarrels over in April Last year, sectarian violence erupted between the country's Protestants who support Brexit and Catholics who reject it. At the time, London, Dublin and Washington quickly issued calls for calm.

In the context of Brexit, the competition between France and Britain over fishing in the English Channel is still intense, as Paris, represented by the Union, is pressing the competition with its fishermen who fought protests in British ports, asking its government to increase the number of fishing visas in its waters, as well as pressing the immigrant paper to extract support British Mali, according to an agreement signed by the two parties on July 20, according to which Paris tightens the noose on its northern coasts, which are the platform from which the flights of clandestine migrants towards its northern neighbor depart, in exchange for London paying France a financial package of $74 million, subsidies to strengthen its protection system for those coasts And renew the technologies used in it.

"Agkouk" Poland and Hungary

Since the debate on the ratification of the European budget for the years 2021-2027, the divisions that resulted in the discussions started to widen, after the European Commission linked the economic aid package to overcome the consequences of Covid-19 to the principle of the rule of law, which raised the veto of the right-wing populist governments of Hungary and Poland. They quickly abandoned it to pass the budget law, but the dispute remained unresolved until it erupted in mid-July after the Polish Constitutional Court ruled that "European judicial order, procedure and principles are not in line with Polish law and therefore unenforceable in the country".

Then, in September, the European Court fined the Polish government a daily fine of €500,000 for its continued exploitation of the Tor coal mine, which is disputed between it and the Czech Republic. A decision that angered the Warsaw government, which declared its adherence to the exploitation of the mine, and said through its spokesman, Peter Mole, that "the Polish authorities refuse to stop work in the Toro mine, as this constitutes a threat to its energy security." To increase the tension between the two sides, escalation, threatening a new disintegration in the European body, and in order to prevent its occurrence, large demonstrations took place in the capital Warsaw, while the European Commission decided to stop transferring the aid package allocated to Poland.

The same concerns exist for Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has often portrayed the European Union in Brussels as an authoritarian foreign power aimed at stripping Hungary of its will, particularly on immigration matters. He said that the EU Balancing Circumstances Act resembled the "ideological blackmail" practiced by the former Soviet Union.

Wars at the gates of Europe

In Poland as well, and this time on its border with Belarus, a refugee crisis has erupted since last October, with large numbers of refugees arriving from Minsk to enter the European Union. A crisis that the Commission described as a "hybrid attack" launched by Lukashenko's regime against it, while Warsaw's response was to ban the border region from civilian presence and mobilize its army there in order to prevent infiltration into its territory.

This was accompanied by a provocation between the forces of the two sides, in which Moscow rushed to move strategic nuclear bombers in the skies of Belarus in a message warning that the European side would resort to a military solution. Later, President Alexander Lukashenko said that his country would offer Russia to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory, if NATO deployed nuclear weapons in Poland. This comes with growing fears that the rapprochement between Minsk and Moscow may lead to the soft annexation of Belarus in the manner of Crimea.

Europe's problems with Russia have not ended, as warnings of the danger of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are increasing, with increasing reports of the massing of large Russian military formations in the Crimea and on the country's eastern borders. On the other hand, it is paralleled by a Ukrainian attempt to enter under the protection of NATO, in a war that may arise and Europe will be a target for its aggression, as it will bear all its economic and social consequences.

In the same escalating pattern of tension, Russia supports the movement of the Bosnian Serbs towards imposing a fait accompli of secession, which may return the Balkan region to the quagmire of fighting that it left in the mid-1990s, in a threat to Europe that falls within the framework of the Russian conflict with the West, which throws the bulk of its weight on the European Union. Criticisms abounded on European defense policy, especially after America’s exit from Afghanistan, which showed a weakness in coordination between Washington and Brussels at this level, a weakness confirmed by Europe’s exclusion from the Ocos Pact, and Australia’s abandonment of the French military submarine deal.